The Island

Interesting crime drama, right out of the Nordic noir playbook, set in the Outer Hebrides. Compelling plot, good acting, stunning scenery and the absolute novelty of being Gaelic speaking for the most part. This aspect is quite refreshing and indeed intriguing as the setting of the drama feels both familiar and otherworldly. It feels like it could be a set in Norway or Iceland given we have to follow the dialogue via subtitles but then there is a lot of familiarity about the setting. Plus the characters throw in quite a bit of English when speaking to each other. It's not without flaws. For example, it tries to squeeze too much into the four episodes. It might have been better to have given each of the protagonists an episode of their own in which their back stories could have been explored more deeply.

Seems like an intriguing premise, but the lead actress is totally miscast. She looks like a scared high school student plus she can't act. She has only one facial expression, which is a childlike wide-eyed stare. It's also more than a bit strange how everybody switches between English and Gaelic as they speak. Perhaps this is real, but it makes watching it and reading subtitles rather challenging. Also, why is it that Brtish television wants so desperately to make lead characters gay? And they make a point of creating scenes where this is suddenly revealed through a same-sex kiss, as if to say to the audience, "aha, bet you didn't see that coming!" It's getting tired and old.

Why make a drama in Gaelic and set it in Harris unless you're going to get under the skin of the setting and the language and of what makes them unique? They just took a poor script that we've seen umpteen times before, translated it into Gaelic and stuck some beautiful scenery in between the scenes.

While the old "Cozy Crime" series (Midsummer Murders, Poirot etc) were lovely to look at, their plotting was precision-tooled; with their DNA traceable to the masterclass-level writing of Agatha Christie (and Conan Doyle). They could also draw compelling characters in a few subtle strokes.

In this series, the visuals are there to paper over the gaping plot holes and lack of interesting characters - none of whom have been developed beyond servicing the plot. None of the dialogue sounds like language that people actually use in reality, more like language copied from other old TV shows.

We live in hope of a Gaelic drama that can stand alongside the best minority-language programmes but sadly this effort suggests that's it's a long way off.

This was such an exciting prospect - a flagship Gaelic drama, set in one of the most dramatic, atmospheric landscapes in the world, and told in the poetic and evocative Gaelic language. It should have been a game-changer but instead we got a series of creaking old cliches that would have been out-of-date 20 years ago.

As a murder-mystery it completely failed, with glaring plot holes and a laughably-inept police investigation.

The dialogue was just Daytime Soap-level melodrama translated into Gaelic. Out of four hours of dialogue there's literally zero quotable lines. There are also zero memorable characters because there's no character development. The dialogue is largely there to help grind out the plot, not to reveal any character depth, detail or colour.

The landscape shots are stunningly-beautiful but we can see amazing Hebridean landscape footage on youtube without having to sit through awful drama.

What's so frustrating about this show is that as the first big budget Gaelic drama, it should have been bulletproof, with a script stress-tested to destruction (especially a murder-mystery which requires meticulous plotting).

So much of the dreadful dialogue, tired tropes and plotting errors shouldn't have made it beyond the first draft. But they did, and because of that it will be a long time before another major Gaelic drama gets made, and that's a great shame.

What's most disappointing about this series is the lack of ambition. They tried to do a mash-up of 'Scandi Noir' and old Bergerac-style shows and ended up with neither, instead of making something fresh with its own identity, based on the unique language and environment.

Scandi Noir worked brilliantly because it wasn't trying to copy another genre. It also worked brilliantly because it was (mostly) based on excellent, successful novels, so they were already building on a strong foundation.

This series is based on an 'amateur dramatics' script which borrows from tired old shows that went off-air years ago. Scandi Noir also had tight, expert plotting, not the rambling, error-strewn 'first draft' feel of this effort.

There's no attempt to capture the pitch-black Highland Scottish humour that people - especially police - use to cope with grimness and tragedy. That would at least have given it some believability, some character and would also have distinguished it from the generic old shows it's trying (and failing) to copy.

While many detective shows have a humourless intensity, that can work brilliantly if you have compelling dialogue and a taught, intense script, whereas this is just everybody glowering and sighing and delivering cliches that sound overwrought and hammy.

I hope the next Gaelic drama tries to make something unique and original. You don't need a million quid an episode, just a decent script and the passion to make something that stands on its own, not a bad version of other old genres.